Noble Knights – Big Bosses Included

Last night the last of Shadow Specters was spoiled, and while this set may not have Dracossack or Spellbook of Judgment, it does have a great number of cards that have a lot of promise and are sure to make an impact in the game (be it now, or next format, starting in January).

First off I want to talk about and finish up with Noble Knights. Last week I spoke about the new Noble Knight cards and the potential they show, and got 5 cards total this time around, and now we have the final 2 cards, theXyz Monster and Noble Arms.

When this card is Xyz Summoned: You can target up to 3 “Noble Arms” Equip Spell Cards with different names in your Graveyard; equip those targets to this card. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 other monster on the field; destroy that target. If this card on the field is sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Level 4 or higher “Noble Knight” monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.

Noble Arms - Excaliburn
Equip Spell

Equip only to a "Noble Knight" monster. It cannot be targeted by an opponent's card effects. During your turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 "Noble Knight" Xyz Monster you control; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Noble Knight" Xyz Monster with a different name, by using that target as the Xyz Material. (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to it also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster.) You can only use this effect of "Noble Arms - Excaliburn" once per turn.

We all know Noble Knights are all about Equip Spells, and these 2 cards of course are no different. The new Artorigus can be Special Summoned 1 of 2 ways, the first being a Rank 5 Xyz Summon, which can be done using Medraut and an Equip Spell. This triggers [ccProd]Noble Knight Medraut[/ccProd]'s effect, Special Summoning either an [ccProd]Ignoble Knight of Black Laundsallyn[/ccProd] or Borz. If you choose Borz, you simply shift Medraut's equipped card to Borz, triggering his effect, grabbing you a 2nd Noble Arms and making him a Level 5 Monster. Simply throw that Equip Spell on to Medraut also making him level 5, and perform your Rank 5 Summon into Artorigus. The Graveyard is Artorigus's personall armory, so all Noble Arms in your Grave from Borz and such will attach to him and start to make him nearly unstoppable. You can accomplish this buy getting a Noble Arms of Destiny, Noble Arms Excalburn, and Noble Arms Gallatin to Artorigus, making him a 3200 attack monster that's immune to destruction once per turn, and untargetable as well. This means no [ccProd]Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos[/ccProd], [ccProd]Dark Hole[/ccProd], [ccProd]Book of Moon[/ccProd], [ccProd]Compulsory Evacuation Device[/ccProd], [ccProd]High Priestess of Prophecy[/ccProd], and just about every card in the game (outside of bloody [ccProd]Spellbook of Fate[/ccProd]...) fall to Artorigus's power.

Of course, lets not forget that once per turn, Artorigus can destroy any other Monster, so you may simply deal with monsters as you want and start swinging in directly for hefty amounts of damage. If all else fails, and somehow your opponent is able to overcome your righteous destroyer of evil, he will replace himself with a Noble Knight in your grave. This means as long as you have a Noble Arms in hand, you can bring back Medraut to start your shenanigans again next turn as well. ALL THE ARTORIGUS!

Well, that took longer than I expected. Anyhow, the second way to start spamming Rank 5 Artorigus's is with Noble Arms Excaliburn. While Excaliburn protects your Monster from being targeted, it also has an second unique effect similar to the Rank-up Magic cards you're probably familiar with currently.You may Banish Excaliburn from your Graveyard to target one of your Rank 4 Artorigus Xyz Monsters, and then Special Summon Artorigus 2.0 from your deck, using Artorigus 1.0 as it's Xyz Materials. So, theoretically, you can do something like Medraut + Noble Arms into [ccProd]Noble Knight Drystan[/ccProd], putting the Noble Arms onto Drystan, triggering his effect and destroying a card. Then, Overlay for Artorigus 1.0, trigger his effect, destroy any Spells/Traps on the field that you need too, then banish Excaliburn from grave to Special 2.0 and destroy some monsters and start making your indestructible King.

All in all, Noble Knights, while completely reliant on having Noble Arms, are shaping up to be a very powerful deck. The plays I described above, making your Mega Artorigus is extremely difficult for Dragons to get around and as my friend Billy Brake texted me last night, "Man, Noble Knights are about to be annoying", which certainly will be the case for some duelist combating the Knights of the Round.

The Circut Series will be coming to Worcester, MA on November 16-17, and of course, these Noble Knights will be legal, so we will see what kind of impact these Warriors will have in the future, and if Dragon's are still too powerful, there is no doubt in my mind the Noble Knights will thrive next format, so try and pick up your Noble Knights now while you still can (Medraut is already a 50 dollar card!)

Discussion

“This means as long as you have a Noble Arms in hand, you can bring back Medraut to start your shenanigans again next turn as well ”

But wouldnt the noble arms that were originally equiped to Artorigus (except for excalibur) equip to the monster he just summoned? (provided they still have its effect left)

Pablo

Ice beast zerofyne too broken against artorigus and 3 noble arms :v

Nick Robertson

What are the Walls/cards to stop “Spell shattering Arrow” ?
Since it would make all the Re-Equips Miss timing, and make the Nobles open to problem cards?
I Love the Deck, but that common sided deck card is creating problems..
I’ve thought about siding Dark bribes and the like but I don’t like them in the deck.
So what are your thoughts?

Bobby Kenny

2 things about spell shattering arrow vs Noble Arms.

1) Spell Shattering Arrow reads “Destroy all face-up Spell Cards your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent for each.” “And if you do” means that the first part must occur for the second part to occur, but both are treated as occurring simultaneously. This means it can’t cause things to miss timing to destruction-triggered effects due to burn (Although using it at chain link 2 or higher can still cause this).

2) The Noble Arms all read “If this face-up card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Warrior-Type “Noble Knight” monster you control; equip this card to that target.” Note the “If” at the start of the activation condition. While the effects of these cards are optional, any trigger effect that occurs “If” something happens cannot miss its activation timing, instead waiting for the first chance it actually can activate, and activating then.

Nick Robertson

Oh I see, Well that makes perfect sense! 😀

Triflingdork

It is true! Believe it! Before we had data on how decks worked in the OCG. But this is the first theme we have no data on :0 Scary stuff.

stuartdjspence

I think the deck is balanced now. Not tier 1 by any means. It’s not broken enough to be tier 1. It is pretty good, answers for most things. The only issue is space, I want to run more of other cards but I feel like if I go over 40 cards I’ll lose any consistency there is. Sixth sense will be gone soon so I’m looking forward to losing that to make room for something. I run 8 arms and 2 swords at dawn. But I wish I could run more. The tuners I chose are 2 vylon sphere, 2 lady of the lake, and 1 unknown synchron. And I’m running 2 of each of the extra deck cards. 3 borz.

stuartdjspence

And by only problem I mean biggest problem. There’s still draw power, and I’m sure there are others I just can’t think of off the top of my head. There are still a ton of knights and I hope they continue the archetype.

Brad Meyer

Jeff I respect you a whole ton as a duelist, but please quite hyping the deck I’ve spent a year and a half trying to perfect. I want to get these Shadow Specter cards for cheap before you or more prolific duelists than myself, show the world the power of the knights.

Thanong Sithisombath

Great Article, Jeff. Sound like fun, noble knight around I most certainly looking forward what impact they can affect the meta.